This invention relates to a three-pole magnetic recording head.
Both perpendicular and longitudinal recording techniques are used for recording and reading back data stored in a magnetic medium. In perpendicular recording the prior art consists mainly of monopole read-write heads on soft underlayer media or two-pole heads with and without soft underlayers. Both such heads have low write field gradients. It is known that low field gradients can be ameliorated by a shielded write pole. Prior approaches also suffer from relatively wide readback pulse widths. In longitudinal recording the prior art consists of two pole heads and MR (magneto resistive) heads with an MR element in the gap between the two poles. Having an MR element in the gap, however, imposes geometric constraints on track width and sensor thickness.